B U L 



B U L 



cMe h a village, and anotlier before you pafs tlie river ; 

 each of which contains about 200 houf^js, or thatched luits, 

 being piles of rnucjh hewn Hone without mortar. Both 

 thefe villages, inhabited by Moors, are exempt from taxes, 

 in confideration of their giving needed aflillance in crofl'ing 

 the river. Although the callle (lands in a fandy barren 

 fitnation, the banks of tlie river below it prcfent to view well- 

 cultivated gardens, with their orchards and vineyards. Each 

 garden contains a windlafs and a bucket, for fupplying it 

 with water. The only ferry-boat for palling the river near 

 this caftle, is a raft, compofed, for the occal'ion, of reeds, to 

 which (l<ins, inflated with wind, are tied with cords, made of 

 the palm-leaf. This is fuftained by feveral Moors, who, 

 whillt they fwim, guide and fupport it by their ifioulders, iii 

 fpite of the rapidity of the current. On this crazy craft 

 travellers and their elTefts are tranfported. We learn from 

 Livy, that, during the fecond Punic war, when Hannibal 

 went from .Spain to Italy, a part of his army palTed the 

 Rhone, the Ticino, and the Po, on goat-flcins filled with air. 

 A kind of temporary bridge isconftrufted for the padage of 

 the emperor, confifting of two thick ofier cables, fallened to 

 large piles on each bank of the river. Thefe cables are 

 formed into a kind of hurdle, by paffing thr<;ugh them iron 

 flakes about 5 feet long, and laying upon it fods 6 inches 

 thick. Chenier's Prefent State of the Empire of Morocco. 



BULAM, or BooLAM, an ifland in the Atlantic, near 

 the coaft of Africa, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, iv^ 

 league from the continent, and about 18 leagues long, and 

 from 4 to 5 broad. N. lat. 1 1°. W. long. 14° 50'. Some 

 have confidered it as one of the Bifl^ago iflcs. See Bissagos. 

 The whole coaft of this iflar.d is defcribed as bordered with 

 tvoods, beyond which the country is fingularly fertile, rich, 

 and beautiful. It was formerly uninhabited, and cultivated 

 by the natives of the other ifiands, who vifited it in feed-time 

 and harveft, and returned home for the reft of the year. It 

 ■was found to be abundantly produftive of rice, maize, millet, 

 fruits, and roots. The ground is faid to rife imperceptibly 

 from the lliore for the ipace of 2 leagues, thus exhibiting a 

 n'.oft agreeable profptft. Tliis afcent ferves as a bafe to 

 liigher mountains, which ftand in the centre of the ifland, 

 covered with fine wood, and feparated by beautiful vallies, 

 with fuch regularity, that nature would feem to have been 

 improved by art. This ifland was reconmiendcd, fo long ago 

 as the commencement of the lad centuiy, by M. da la Bruc, 

 to the French government, as a fit place for a fcttlement ; 

 and the advice was repeated, in 1767, by the abbeDemanet. 

 However, during the year 1791, a fociety was fk)rnied in 

 London for eftablifhing a fettlement on fome ehgible fpot on 

 or near the coaft of Afp<ca. Thofe who formed this aflbcia- 

 tion, allured by the flattering information which they had 

 received of the ifland of Bulam, fixed on this as the objedl 

 of their dcftination. The fubfcribtrs were to receive a grant 

 of 500 acres of land for the fum of 30I. and in that pro- 

 portion for any greater or lefs number of acres, as far as 

 2000. In the fpace of one month after opening the fub- 

 fcription, 9000IS. were paid into the hands of truftecs. After 

 havinir encountered various difliculties, the adventurers ar- 

 rived at Bulam, and immediately took poftcfrion of it by 

 lioifting the Britifli flag. The natives unexpcfledly attacked 

 the new comers ; killed fonic of them, and obliged the others 

 to relinquilh what they had obtained. Accordingly, as they 

 were thus compelled to abandon it, they lought for refuge in 

 a fettlement belonging to the Portugucfe, where nioft of the 

 \infortnnate adventurers became victims to the climate of the 

 country. Mr. Montefiore, who was a urincipal agent in this 

 bufinefs, defpairing of the colonization of Bulam, embarked 

 for SiEp.p.A LnoNt, of which he gives a very favourable 

 Vol. V. 



account. However, from another account, compiled from 

 the records of the Bulam fociety, we are led to entertain a 

 more favourable opinion of the fituation and profpefls of this 

 colony. Mr. Beaver, wlio rcfided at Bulam as chief in com- 

 mand, in a letter dated July j 793, exprefles great confidence 

 of thefinaliuccefsof the undertaking; declaring tliat, withfuf- 

 ficient fupport (not m/7/V.i/^; every thing having been fairly pur- 

 chafed, and amicably lettled with the neighbouring Africans) 

 " not one-tenth part of what had been afiorded to the Sierra 

 Leone company," he could, long ago, " have added to our 

 prefent territories land fufficient to maintain 500,000 people, 

 and at very little expencc." He concludes his kttcr, 

 addrtflcd to the truftees of the Bulam aftijciation, with ob- 

 ferving, *' that if the good people of England knew but one 

 iialf of the advantages to be derived from colonizing this 

 part of Africa, on an exlenjlve fcale, you might command 

 half the money in the kingdom." This officer refided at 

 Bulam about two years. 



Dr. Chifltolm, in his " Eflay on the inalignant peftilential 

 fever, S:c." Svo. i 795) maintains that the yellow fever v.'a3 

 originally brought to the Weft Indies from Bulam in the fliip 

 Hankcy, on board of wiiich it commenced. 



BULARCHUS, in Biography, a Greek painter, flou- 

 riflied 740 years B.C. and is faid to have been the firft who 

 introduced (at Icall amorg the Greeks) different colours in 

 the fame pifture. 



BULAR.SKAIA, in Gcogrrphy, a town of Siberia, on 

 the fouth fide of the Irtifli, oppofuc to Tobollk. 



BULATMAI, in Ichthyology, a fpccics of Cvprinus, 

 the anal fin of which contains eight rays : the fecond dorfal 

 fin is large, and not ferrated : beards or cirri four. Habli^l. 



Cyprinus Bulatmai is a rare fifh, of the fize of the com- 

 mon carp. The colour is fteel blue, glofftd with gold 

 above, and filvery, fhining with a golden hue beneath : the 

 fcales are of the middle fize, femicircular, diftant, and ini- 

 bricated : tlefli white as fnow, and very good. This inha- 

 bits the Cafpian fea. 



BULB, or BuLETis, in Bo'.any, I^i\ki;, Gr. as it is cm- 

 ployed by Theophrailus, is fomctimcs the name of a plant 

 allied to SciUa Allium, and others of the fame family, but 

 not particularly afcertained by modern botarifts, and fome- 

 times denotes the peculiar kind of root by which thofe 

 plants are diftinguiflied. In the latter fenfe it was admitted 

 by Pliny, and other Latin writers, and is prefervcd in moll 

 of the modern languages of Europe. Our Engliili gar- 

 deners univerfally fptak. of it as a rool ; and it is faid by 

 profeflbr ^lartyn, in his " Language of Botany," to have 

 been " fo called by botanifts, till I^inmus correcled the er- 

 ror, and fliewed that it is a Angle liul enveloping the whole 

 plant." But Linnsus was by no means the firft who viewed 

 it in this light. Our countryman Grew, in the fecond book 

 of his " Anatomy of Plants," prefented to the Royal So- 

 ciety in 1672, fays eMprtfsly, that "all bnlbou.; rooU are;, 

 as it were, hermaphrodites, or root and Iruuk both together; 

 for the _/?nV;^j- only are abfolute roots ; the lulh ad\ually con- 

 taining thofe parts, which fpringing up, make the haves or 

 body ; and is, as it, were, a great tuduuAsv ground." About 

 the fame time Malpighi v. as engaged in a fimilar courfe of 

 ftudy at Bologna, and communicated the relult of his re- 

 fc;arches alfo to our Royal Society. Under their patronage 

 his " Anatome Plantarum" was publilhed in London, the 

 firft part in 1675, and the fecond, which contains the trea- 

 tife " Dc Radicibus," in 167.9. Hetreated the fubjeft more 

 at large, and diffcfted, defcribed, and figured fcveral of tl-.c 

 beft kiiowu bulbs. In complete agreement with Dr. Grew, 

 he uniformly flates the bulb to be a germ or bud, confifting 

 of leaves or coats which er.clofe the rudiments of the future 

 5 R plar.i, 



